


Musically Inclined Matchmaking

by c0cunt



Series: EreJean Week 2016 [2]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Erejean Week 2016, M/M, Singer!Jean, bassist!Mikasa, drummer!Eren, guitarist!Historia, guitarist!Jean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-01
Updated: 2016-04-01
Packaged: 2018-05-30 13:45:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6426253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c0cunt/pseuds/c0cunt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren and Mikasa need to find a new singer and guitarist for their band, after Sasha decided to pursue a career in catering.  When she puts them in contact with her friend Historia (who shoves Jean into the picture unwillingly), a band is formed.<br/>Pre <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/5787781">A Lovely Shade of Lilac</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sooooooooooooo...I wanted to do a formative piece for A Lovely Shade of Lilac for a while now. Here it is ^-^  
> Some things may be a bit weird about this piece. What I wanted from it kind of changed about halfway through, and the EreJean in it is lighter than what I wanted it to be.

  Eren was frustrated, to say the least.  Titanic Walls, his and Mikasa’s band, had just lost their lead guitarist and vocalist, Sasha, because she had decided that her talents were put to better use in a restaurant’s kitchen than on stage.  Thankfully, Sasha hadn’t left the pair of them to fend for themselves (a band couldn’t survive with a bassist and a drummer, when neither of them could sing that well), and had said she’d give her friend a call to see if she was up to it.  She was, supposedly, and wanted to meet with them to see if they all “clicked”.  Again, supposedly, as they should have met half an hour ago.  Mikasa had gone to get Eren and herself some milkshakes (one of the very few things that could dispel Eren’s annoyance), so Eren was sitting, alone and bored, at a Starbucks outdoor table, when a man slid up beside him and flashed him a cocky grin.

 

  “Hello there,” he said, and Eren couldn’t help raising his eyebrows at the man.  His hair was extremely stupid looking, the top obviously bleached (his undercut revealing that he was probably not a blonde naturally), the bit of hair that seemed to be threatening to fall in front of his eyes was clipped down with a white and pink butterfly clip.  Apparently he was cocky as well, the shirt he was wearing proclaimed “I woke up like this:  Flawless” was also tightly fitted, the sleeves having been raggedly cut to show off his pale (though well defined) upper arms.  Combined with a pair of pale pink jeans so tight that Eren was a bit concerned about this man’s circulation, a few shiny silver piercings in his ears and lip, and a small pile of metallic bracelets on his left wrist that stretched almost halfway to his elbow...Well, Eren wasn’t sure what to make of this man.  At least his face was handsome enough, even if it was a bit long, with sharp hazel eyes that were obviously checking Eren out.  “I’m Jean, and you are?”  The man, now identified as Jean asked, offering Eren his hand.

 

  “Eren!”  Mikasa suddenly reappeared at Jean’s elbow, four drinks held in one of those cardboard drink carrier thingies, her face revealing nothing to the unknowing eye, but Eren could see that she was almost amused.  Jean’s head turned so fast, Eren could hear his neck crack, and he almost felt bad for the poor guy.  Mikasa had in tow with her a tiny blonde woman, who seemed absolutely delighted to see the two of them as she clapped her hands with excitement, jingling the (what appeared to be) billions of metal bracelets that covered her arms almost entirely.

  
  “Hi Eren!  You’ve apparently met my friend Jean.  Anyways, I’m Historia, Sasha’s friend, and she said that you were looking for a guitarist and singer?”  Tiny blonde lady said, her eyes twinkling with mischief as she waved between herself and Jean, grabbing the tallest drink from Mikasa’s cardboard thing, before shoving a straw into it.  Jean’s eyes narrowed at her as he straightened up, no longer looking Mikasa up and down in a way that had made Eren almost jealous, but now turning a fierce glare onto the smaller blonde.

 

  “Histy, have you really not given up on getting me back into that shit?”  Jean groaned, one hand balling into a fist as other slapped and dragged down his face in a display of overdramatics.  Historia sighed as she placed her drink on the table, before she grabbed at his arm and manhandled him into sitting down across from Eren.  Either Jean wasn’t protesting as much as he appeared to be, or she was really damn strong, easily getting him to sit.  Judging from the look of distaste on Jean’s face, and how he rubbed at his arm where she had been gripping him, Historia was probably ripped underneath all those bracelets, which was hella intimidating.

 

  “Sit down and shut up Jeanbo, I got this!”  Historia said confidently as she sat next to him, patting his shoulder none too gently, before shoving one of the other cups in front of Jean.  Mikasa slid into the seat next to Eren, carefully placing his chocolate brownie milkshake in front of him from its cardboard holder, sipping on her own quietly.  Eren gave her a look that could’ve meant either “what the fuck is going on” or “Sasha shouldn’t have been trusted”, even as he slurped up the milkshake he was given.  If nothing else, he’d hear these two out as long as he had milkshake to spare.

 

  “Anyways,” Historia continued, sipping on the straw protruding from her drink, “We’re a singer and guitarist combo-” Jean snorted at that, crossing his arms over his chest and moodily picked at one of his many bracelets “-and Sasha apparently thought that the two of us would mesh well musically with the two of you!”

 

  “We  _ were _ a singer and guitarist duo,” Jean snapped, annoyance clear in his tone before he settled back into his seat, wary of the look Historia sent his way.  Eren and Mikasa exchanged a look; if they weren’t even on the same page about their music, how would they be of any help to their band pursuit?  Eren was about to ask, before Jean sighed loudly and stood.  “Look, sorry to waste your time.  Historia’s good enough at singing and guitar for me to not need to be here.”  Jean shrugged his shoulders as he scooted away from the table, quickly getting out of Historia’s reach.  However, he didn’t get out of Mikasa’s reach, as her hand shot out like lightning to grab his right wrist tightly.

 

  “Historia and Sasha have both told me you’re really good at what you do.  Why don’t we play together sometime?”  Mikasa asked innocently.  Jean looked between her and Eren, his gaze lingering on Eren for a second, before he snorted out a grumpy sounding “fine”.  Mikasa loosened her grip on his wrist, and he tugged away, hands stuffing somehow into his front pockets as he slouched off.  Only after Jean had disappeared around the far side of the building, his drink completely forgotten on the table, did Eren say anything.

 

  “What the fuck’s his deal?”  Eren asked around a mouthful of brownie.  Mikasa wrinkled her nose at him as Historia sighed.

 

  “He’s been really off since his grandfather passed.  I think he has it in his head that he’s not living up to his expectations for him, or something like that.”  Historia waved a hand slightly before adding, “Between you and me, Jean’s grandfather would’ve been proud of Jean even if he ended up living in a cardboard box.  Not that Jean would believe it, he has quite a self deprecating streak…”  Historia trailed off, shaking her head slightly.  Soon enough she brightened up, digging into her bag and pulling out what appeared to be a blank cd in a case.  “Take a listen, see if you guys like what we used to be.  There’s like, three of our old songs on there, with a decently different vocal range.  Knowing Jean, he hasn’t let himself get bad yet, and we can set up a date to jam if you like what you hear?”  She asked hopefully, blue eyes glittering with delight when Mikasa nodded as Eren took the case from her.

  
  “We’ll listen to it,” Mikasa assured her, and the two of them exchanged numbers, before Historia trotted off, her heels clicking against the sidewalk quietly, Jean’s abandoned drink flying into a nearby trash can on her way.  Eren flipped the case in his hands over, looking for any indication of what was on it, before snorting slightly and letting it clatter onto the tabletop.  Mikasa shot him a look as she snatched up the case, already digging her old discman out of her little backpack.  “We said we’d listen to it,” She said sharply, as she offered an earbud to Eren.  He sighed dramatically as he stuffed it into his ear, not expecting to be good.


	2. Chapter 2

  Once again, Eren was frustrated, to say the least.  He and Mikasa had been able to wrangle Jean and Historia into a jam session, and moving a drum kit from one side of the city to the other on public transportation just wasn’t fun at all.  Jean had only agreed to it if they came to where he was set up, which was a three hour bus journey out of Mitras proper and into the suburb of Trost.  Mikasa didn’t even have to bother with an amp, as Jean said he had a ton of them, so at least she was able to help him carry some of his dumb kit.  And then they’d have to meet Historia at the stop they’d get off at, and she’d get them the rest of the way to Jean’s place.  It all just seemed weird and sketchy, even though Eren was delighted to see Historia again, covered in much less bracelets and much more ink than he remembered.

 

  “Nice tattoos,” Eren said brightly, admiring the different flowers that stretched from one elbow, across what he could see of Historia’s upper back, and down the other elbow.  Historia grinned at him, wiggling a few bracelets down to show him the rest of the flowers, puffing up proudly as she stated “My girlfriend did them, aren’t they great?”  

 

  Historia chattered brightly as the three of them shoved equipment into the back of her van, Mikasa nodding every so often to show she was listening, as Eren tuned her voice out once they started rolling.  They were definitely out of Mitras, the space between buildings growing larger and reminding Eren of their hometown of Shiganshina, before Historia pulled into the driveway of a relatively large house that appeared to have seen better days.  The house seemed to sag in on itself the closer to the center it was, several windows were boarded up, and the roof needed to be replaced.  It didn’t look like any sort of home to Eren, and even Mikasa seemed to have misgivings about the place, sharing an anxious look.  Historia barely batted an eye at the rough exterior, probably used to it by now.  She did, however, tsk at the front door, which looked as though it was hanging on by a thread.

 

  “Jean, you said you’d replace the hinges on this thing!”  Historia called, wiggling the doorknob for a few seconds.  Apparently it didn’t matter if it was locked or not, as the door opened after a few twists.  “We have the basement all set up to play and record in, he’s probably down there already.” She added, still not batting an eye at the dust and worn furniture that was scattered about haphazardly.  None of the other houses on the block looked as rundown, and Eren had to assume it was from neglect, hesitantly following his sister and Historia inside.  The staircase down to the basement was steep and rickety, and Eren almost felt the need to duck down to avoid hitting his head.  There was a jingling of keys as Historia rattled the (surprisingly very solid) door at the bottom of the stairs, cursing under her breath until she finally unlocked it with three separate keys.  She then had to throw her entire weight into the door, huffing slightly as it slowly budged open, until there was enough space for each of them to slip into the room.  The sound of a guitar being picked at idly floated out faintly, as if behind a few more layers of doors, and Eren realized why when was finally able to squeeze past the door.

 

  Eren had never been in an official recording studio, but it probably looked something like Jean’s basement.  What appeared to be soundproofed walls surrounded them on all sides, and there was a small booth with clear glass about halfway up from the floor separated from the rest of the room.  Next to that room, about halfway across the large basement space, was a solid wall, with a heavy looking door set into the middle of it.  Most of the right wall was another half-glass room, and happened to be the room that Jean was currently standing in.  He had large bulky headphones on, dark circles that probably could be seen from miles away underneath his eyes, and he was cradling a pale pink guitar gently as he smushed himself into the corner that overlapped with the solid wall room.  

 

  “No wonder he didn’t hear us,” Historia laughed, before knocking loudly on the glass.  Either the sound or the movement caught Jean’s attention, his head whipping around as he rose quickly.  He blinked a few times, squinting suspiciously at the three of them as he set down his guitar carefully.  A few seconds of hesitation later, he opened the door near the basement staircase with a frown.

 

  “What’re you doing here?  Weren’t you supposed to come by around like 1pm?”  Jean asked, eyebrows crunched together in confusion.  Historia huffed out a laugh as she pulled her phone out and showed Jean the time.  Jean blinked slowly, grumbled out a quiet “oh” at the same time his stomach made an unholy grumbling noise that was promptly ignored by him and Historia, both of them (Historia being chatty, Jean practically silent) helping Eren and Mikasa set up their equipment.

 

  “Okayyyyyy,”  Historia huffed once all of Eren’s kit was set up, pulling her own guitar (a very handsome mint green Fender, that Eren knew for a fact wasn’t exactly cheap) out of its case that had been resting in a corner of the room.  “Do you wanna play a couple of covers, or something original?  I bet Jeanbo’s more willing to do All Time Low covers than anything else,”  Historia grinned, jabbing her elbow into Jean’s ribs as he attempted to squeeze around her to get to his own guitar.  Mikasa shrugged as Eren grumbled “sure let’s do some covers”, Eren flopping unceremoniously onto his seat.

 

  Historia nodded, and turned a bright, bubbly smile to Jean as she asked, “Do ya have it set up to record?  We can listen to how we all sound together afterwards!”  Jean jerked his head in what could’ve been a nod (which Historia took as an affirmative), dragging a mic stand closer to where Historia had decided to stand and turning it on.  Before he returned to where his guitar was resting, Jean moved a boom mic closer to Eren, and Mikasa grabbed her own mic when she realized what Jean was doing.

 

  “We can all sorta...Backup vocals for now if we want…?”  Jean almost asked hesitantly, unsure of where he stood with the two Historia had brought along.  Mikasa nodded at him, and Eren snorted impatiently.

 

  “C’mon let’s fucking play something already,” Eren snapped, his leg bouncing rapidly from pre-performance jitters.  “How good do you two know Six Feet Under The Stars?”  Eren asked, and Jean lit up as he strode over to his guitar, an almost ridiculous grin on his face.

 

  “I think we can do it!” Historia said brightly, shooting a cheeky smirk in Jean’s direction.  Jean blew a raspberry at her as he started playing, Mikasa joining in right on cue, and  _ oh _ .  Eren could barely keep his eyes off of Jean as he sang and played.  It was startling, the difference between the man who had been so against them jamming together, to the one easily singing lyrics as he threw sharp grins at Historia, who just stuck her tongue out back at him.  As the guitar and bass faded out after the last line of lyrics, Eren sought out Mikasa’s eyes.  She seemed genuinely impressed with the performance, and if Mikasa was impressed, that was good enough for Eren.

 

  “Now we can listen to how that was!”  Historia chirped, skipping happily out of the room and waving for Mikasa and Eren to follow her to the solid walled room.

 

  “I don’t think we need to,” Mikasa said, once the door behind Eren had fallen shut, leaving Jean to fiddle with his guitar in the practice room.  Eren nodded in agreement, adding on “We sounded good together, I think.”  Historia’s face lit up, and she clapped her hands excitedly.

 

  “Great!  We can like, set up times to jam and stuff.  I just have to be home by like midnight, Jean does whatever the hell he wants as long as it doesn’t interfere with his job and class hours...So basically whenever the hell you wanna, we can get together!”  Historia continued to ramble, and Eren trusted Mikasa to pay attention and fill him in later.  Instead, he watched Jean shuffle around in the practice room slowly, unplugging equipment and rolling up wires to store back in their proper bins.  As Eren continued to watch, Jean paused in what he was doing, fishing his phone out of his pocket.  Eren assumed he was getting a call or something, and was a bit surprised to see Jean’s face crumple around a massive frown as he stared at his screen, before shoving it back into his pocket. He wondered who was trying to talk to Jean, and why Jean obviously didn’t want to talk to them, but thinking on it got him nowhere as Historia’s voice finally broke into his consciousness.

 

  “...So we’ll see you two next week!”  Historia burbled happily as Mikasa grabbed at Eren’s wrist to tug him out of the room.  Eren blinked rapidly as Mikasa dragged him quickly out of the house, leaving dusty scuff marks on the first floor.  As soon as they were outside, Mikasa let out a hacking cough and sneezed at least half a dozen times in a row, Eren handing her tissues from her bag as Jean and Historia loaded up the van with their equipment.  “Do some dusting this week, Jeanbo, this isn’t healthy for literally anyone to be running around in occasionally, let alone you living here full time,” Historia scolded, and frowned even more loudly as Jean blew a raspberry at her as he slouched back inside.

 

  Historia offered to drive Mikasa and Eren back to their apartment, and who were they to say no when she wasn’t even asking for gas money?  Pretty soon after they were on the road, though, Eren began barraging Historia with questions.

 

  “What the fuck’s he doing living in a dusty shithole like that?  Why didn’t he fix up the rest of the place with the money it probably cost to make the basement into a recording studio?”  Eren asked incredulously.  Mikasa sniffed and tapped Eren’s shoulder for another tissue, as Historia shrugged, eyes still on the road.

 

  “Honestly, Jean’s a big old dumb mystery to me 95% of the time.  I know that that’s the home his parents raised him in, and that his grandpa willed it to him with the stipulation that he’d better make the basement into a recording studio like he’d been saying for a while he wanted to do with it  And I know for a fact that that idiot has enough money to fix the place up, but he just...Doesn’t.  Weirdo that he is and everything.”  Historia smoothly stopped at a red light as Eren mulled over her words, and changed the subject quickly.  “Hey, we should think of a new name for our band!  I know you guys were Titanic Walls, and we called ourselves Breaking Trost, so maybe…”  She trailed off as the light turned green, returning her attention to the road.  Mikasa hummed for a second as she put some thought into it, while Eren valiantly fought to not be distracted.

  
  “How about Breaking the Walls?”  Mikasa suggested.  Historia nodded with a grin as she tossed her phone onto Eren’s lap, ordering him to send Jean the name suggestion (Eren took the time to memorize Jean’s number and send him his own in the text as well).  A few minutes later Jean replied with merely a poop emoji, which was apparently good enough for Historia.  And thus, Breaking the Walls was formed.  Two days later (after a long string of banter), Eren and Jean met up to “hang out”, and Eren bopped Jean in the nose with his own nose while attempting to kiss him.  Jean didn’t seem to mind, but he teased Eren for weeks afterward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually have links to what I imagine Historia's and Jean's guitars are!  
> [This one is Historia's.](http://www.guitarcenter.com/Fender/Limited-Edition-American-Standard-Telecaster-Rosewood-Neck-Electric-Guitar.gc)  
> [And the shell pink version of this one is Jean's.](http://www.guitarcenter.com/Squier/Affinity-Stratocaster-Electric-Guitar-with-Rosewood-Fingerboard.gc)


End file.
